The Jarvis Family and Other Relatives

If you have reached us from Ancestry.com or another cached site,
please go to http://www.fmoran.com/meyer.html
to see the latest version of this page.
We welcome comments and inquiries. Please write us.

Jacob Meyer Family

First Generation

Jacob Meyer (1725-1800) arrived in North Carolina with his wife in 1767, from Lititz, Pennsylvania, to take over management of the tavern in Bethabara. Their journey was described as "a good and quick trip" except for an incident in which lightning struck very near their wagon, staggering the horses. In 1772 they moved from Bethabara to Salem to become the tavern-keepers there. There are many entries in the first three volumes of the Records of the Moravians in North Carolina that refer to them, giving his wife's name as Catharina, with no maiden name. The last entry to mention her as Catharina is in May 1779. Beginning in September 1781, references to Jacob Meyer's wife are indexed to Maria Dorothea Meyer, maiden name Miller, which suggests that Catharina might have died during that interval, and that he remarried. However, there is no Catharina Meyer (any spelling) listed as buried in Salem, and Dorothea Elizabeth Meyer, who was born in 1778, is later mentioned specifically as Maria Dorothea's daughter. We have also been told that there is a marriage record for Jacob and Dorothea in Lititz PA in 1767. Can anyone explain the entries that refer to Catharina?

We would be grateful for any additional information available on this family from the Moravian archives or elsewhere.

On January 31 1784 the Salem tavern was destroyed in a fire. The Meyers were not injured, thanks to the assistance of two tavern guests from Wilkes County who rescued them. The tavern was rebuilt, and opened again in December 1784. The Meyers continued to serve there until 1787, when they retired because of feeble health. Jacob Meyer's death in 1800 is not specifically mentioned in the translated diaries, but Maria Dorothea is referred to thereafter as a widow. She died in November 1803 in Bethabara, where she had gone to visit "her children" Isaac and Dorothea Boner.

Previously we stated that Philip Jacob died in 1801 and that his widow Susanna then married Godfrey Miller. These statements have been questioned, and we don't have the documentation to answer them. A Susanna Myers did marry Godfrey Miller in 1803, but was she the widow of Philip Jacob? Was Susanna Helsabeck even Philip Jacob's wife, or was she the wife of a different Jacob Myers? And if the latter, who were the parents of that Jacob?

Dorothea Meyer and Isaac Boner left Salem "secretly and in a most unseemly manner" on the evening of August 7, 1797, with Salome Nissen and Jacob Schaub, and both couples were married the next day. Dorothea was immediately dismissed from her position as a teacher in the Girls' School. Dorothea and Isaac eventually were readmitted to the Salem congregation and became the parents and grandparents of some prominent citizens. The Schaubs settled near Bethania and joined the Moravian congregation there.

In his will, dated 1794 and probated March term 1801, Jacob Meyer Sr. leaves his large German Bible to his grandson Henry Meyer, a silver watch to his son Samuel Meyer, and his harpsichord to his daughter Dorothea. Another grandson, John Krause, is also mentioned.

Philip "Mire" is listed in the 1800 census with two boys under 10. Presumably Henry Meyer, named in his grandfather's will in 1794, is one of these sons. A Jacob Meyer appears in later Moravian records as the husband of Maria Elizabeth Phillips. We suspect that this is the other son of Philip Jacob and Susanna Meyer. Does anyone have further information on either of these possible Meyer children?